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Texas Department of Insurance
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Disaster Recovery Guide

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Emergency Management in Texas | Statutes and Ordinances | Governor’s Disaster Declarations | Federal Disaster Declarations | Catastrophe Designation by TDI | Information for Texas Consumers

The Texas State Disaster Coalition – a disaster response group formed by the Texas Department of Insurance, the Texas Division of Emergency Management, and the Institute for Business & Home Safety – provides this reference page for the insurance industry to learn about disaster recovery and emergency management in Texas. Get more detailed information about each topic from the links below.

Emergency Management in Texas

Texas Department of Insurance’s role

Overviews and Guidelines

Statutes and Ordinances

Governor’s Disaster Declarations

  • What does it mean? The governor’s disaster declarations authorizes state agencies to spend resources necessary to respond to the disaster, and suspends statutes that may interfere with the disaster response (see sample below).
  • State disaster declarations are posted in the Governor's Newsroom

Federal Disaster Declarations

  • What is the process? The Texas Division of Emergency Management prepares an application and the governor submits it to FEMA. FEMA submits the application to the president.
  • Federal disaster declarations are posted on FEMA's website
  • Learn more about the process

Catastrophe Designation by TDI

TDI Catastrophe Bulletins

Disaster Claim-Deadline Extension

The commissioner of insurance can extend the claim-handling deadlines in Insurance Code Sections 542.055-542.057 for an additional 15 days in the event of a weather-related catastrophe or major natural disaster, under Texas Insurance Code Section 542.059.

Specific requirements are in 28 Texas Administrative Code Section 5.9303.

Petitions

Insurers may petition the commissioner to consider a weather-related event a catastrophe or major natural disaster, when:
  • The area in which the losses occur are defined by reasonable boundaries.
  • Estimated total dollar losses are $5 million or more in the aggregate for all insurers.
  • The estimated total number of claims are 3,000 or more in the aggregate for all insurers.

The estimated dollar losses and number of claims may include all lines of insurance.

An insurer can send a petition to the Texas Department of Insurance by email to PropertyCasualty@tdi.texas.gov, or by mail to Property and Casualty Lines Office, Mail Code PC-PCL, Texas Department of Insurance, P.O. Box 12030, Austin, TX 78711-2030.

The petition must include:

  • Type of losses.
  • Lines of insurance affected.
  • Location of the loss, specific time period of the event.
  • Insurer's total estimated dollar losses for insured property by line of business.
  • Insurer's total estimated number of claims by line of insurance.
  • A statement of the reasons the insurer cannot process claims within the statutory time periods.

Information for Texas Consumers

Questions? Call us at 800-252-3439.

Last updated: 7/14/2022